The latest instalment of my look back at Darlington's 1990/91 season. Click here for August, September, October, November, December and January. Or for the whole season in one handy post, check out this at the superb The Two Unfortunates.
With Brian Little's spurning of Birmingham's advances providing welcome relief and renewed optimism after a 4 game winless streak, Darlington's first game in February was at York City, a chance for revenge after earlier losses in the FA Cup and Leyland Daf Trophy. Steve Mardenborough started in place of Drew Coverdale, John Borthwick got the winner, York's Nigel Pepper was sent off, his incredible 3rd red card against Darlo of the season, and we came away with a 1-0 win. This was followed by a Tuesday night home game against struggling Wrexham, a pretty dull game which ended with another 1-0 win, Gary Gill with the goal.
We then had two weeks without a game, before taking on Aldershot in the match re-arranged from boxing day. With Mick Tait suspended, it was a rare start for Gary Coatsworth, and he helped keep another clean sheet. Goals from Borthwick and Lee Ellison, who missed a couple of easy chances that could have given him a first half hat-trick secured our third straight win, 2-0 and led to Mark Prudhoe leading "We are top of the league" chants with the away fans after the game.
If his talent and personality had endeared him to Darlo supporters, it was the next game, away at Hartlepool, that really sealed Prudhoe's status as fan favourite and club legend. As well as Darlo up at the top of the table, the Monkey Hangers were also doing well, so for one of the few times in history, there were promotion implications for both sides to add to the usual hostility and bad blood. Tait was back, but Andy Toman was still suspended and Hartlepool dominated but just could not find a way past Prudhoe who made save after save, many of them of the spectacular variety and we escaped with a 0-0 draw.
The month ended with a trip to Carlisle, and Phil Linacre was back from injury and straight away back into his goalscoring form from January, he got one, as did Borthwick, and the defence got another clean sheet, a 2-0 win finishing off one of the most successful month's in club history, 5 games, 4 away from home, 13 points, 0 goals conceded, manager of the month for Brian Little and a solid lead at the top of the table, not bad at all.
Sad news at this time though was the forced retirement of David Corner, a huge part of our Conference success the season before, he battled injuries all season before finally having to call it quits.
As always, feel free to add further details or memories in the comments section.
Coming up, March: We finally let some goals in, and start drawing a lot.
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